1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to bottling apparatus, and more particularly to an apparatus for feeding bottle caps into the bottling apparatus in which the caps incoming are unoriented with respect to the open side of the caps and within which the caps are all uniformly oriented before being fed into the bottling apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
In bottling operations, after each bottle is filled with an appropriate amount of contents such as a beverage, caps are then screwed or clenched tightly onto the open beverage containers thus sealing them ready for further packaging and shipment. However, a prior step with regard to the caps is the proper orientation so that the open sides of the caps are all facing in an appropriate direction for installation onto the open bottle mouths.
Where the caps are magnetic, U.S. Pat. No. 4,081,069 to Ono teaches a feeding apparatus for magnetic caps in which the feeding apparatus includes a magnetic first conveyor belt which attracts and transfers the magnetic caps from a hopper to a second conveyor belt which separates wrongly positioned caps for conveyance into the bottling apparatus. Another feeder for bottling cappers is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,735,343 to Herzog wherein the conveyor housing may be angularly adjusted to cause bottle caps improperly oriented to fall by gravity to the bottom of the conveyor. This aspect of the Herzog teaching depends upon the offset center of gravity wherein the closed side of the cap being heavier than the open side, causes the improperly oriented caps to fall from the conveyor.
Another apparatus for orienting lids is taught by Bessels in U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,922 which includes first and second conveyor belts positioned in overlapping fashion and, by opposing movement of these belts, ensures that only properly oriented caps are attached to the second belt for conveyance into the bottling apparatus. Eitzinger in U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,007 also teaches an orienter apparatus for cup-shaped objects utilizing two rotating pin sorters positioned above and below the path of the unoriented caps, each of the pin sorters entrapping properly oriented caps for subsequent release for conveyance into a bottling apparatus.
An adjustable bottle gripper belt taught by Herzog in U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,228 discloses gripping a container or bottle while being capped filling apparatus disclosing two adjustable container grouper belt assemblies opposingly suspended on a tabletop between a conveyor. The gripper belts prevent rotation of the container while each cap is rotationally applied and tightened.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,610,345 to Spreen et al. discloses a method and apparatus for orienting and delivering dispenser cap assemblies. An apparatus for feeding closures provided with a tube to an operating unit is taught by Bianchini et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,748.
Evers, Jr. et al. teach a conveyor system for lifting and orienting bottle caps in U.S. Pat. No. 6,491,152. A conveyor apparatus used to orient objects such as closures, lids, caps, etc. is taught by Dotson et al. in U.S. Application Publication 2009/0166153.
The following U.S. patents have been identified as describing related structure and components to that of the present disclosure, although in no way rendering the present disclosure unpatentable in any sense.    U.S. Pat. No. 4,373,437 to Rodenbaugh et al.    U.S. Pat. No. 4,735,343 to Herzog    U.S. Pat. No. 4,779,714 to Madden    U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,722 to Beswick    U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,719 to Piazza    U.S. Pat. No. 5,396,979 to Wysocki    U.S. Pat. No. 5,586,637 to Aidlin et al.    U.S. Pat. No. 5,954,184 to Schmitt    U.S. Pat. No. 7,228,953 to Perreault et al.    U.S. Pat. No. 7,322,458 to McDonald et al.
The present invention teaches a simple yet virtually foolproof apparatus for orienting bottle caps of virtually any size, regardless of material content, by the use of a pair of opposed moving belts rotating in unison together wherein each of the unoriented caps are fed between the belts atop a support surface which maintains the caps in height alignment with a row of holes formed in each of the belts just above the support surface equal to about half the diameter of the caps. A vacuum source from within each of the belts draws air into the suction holes to hold the open side of each of the caps by suction against the corresponding belt over one of the suction holes. The closed side of the caps, being slightly crowned, are unable to be suction held against one of the holes, will be attracted to an open hole on the opposite or facing belt and held in that orientation until detached from the corresponding belt at the far end of the apparatus for collection into a collection chute and properly oriented.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.